This paper was compiled by Dr. Sushan Acharya and was presented at the Adult Learning and Literacy for Democracy and Citizenship International Adult Learners Week, September, 2004, Cape Town, South Africa.
The author is responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this publication and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion on the part of UNESCO concerning legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
Published in 2004 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Kathmandu Office KAT-ED-2004/01 Front page photo Š UNESCO/ Georges MalemprÊ Printed by Office Support Service Center Chhapakhana P. Ltd., Teku, Kathmandu, Nepal
For more information please contact: UNESCO Kathmandu Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, P.O. Box 14391 Kathmandu NEPAL E-mail:kathmandu@unesco.org Tel: +977-1-5554-396/769 Fax: +977-1-5554-450 http://www.unesco.org/kathmandu
Democracy, Gender Equality and Women’s Literacy:
Experience from Nepal
Prepared by
Dr. Sushan Acharya, EdD. Central Department of Education Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
UNESCO Kathmandu Office Jawalakhel • Lalitpur • PO Box 14391 • Kathmandu • Nepal Phone +977-1-5554-396/769 • Fax +977-1-5554-450
Democracy, Gender Equality and Women’s Literacy:
Experience from Nepal
Democracy, Gender Equality and Women’s Literacy: Experience from Nepal 1 Democratic Values: The Constitutional Provisions 4 Gender Parity Status in Literacy 5 Women’s Literacy in the Midst of Diverse Values and Practices 5 Task ahead for Gender Justice through Adult Literacy 8 References 10 Annex I: Table 1. Female literacy rate and educational attainment levels by caste/ethnicity (1991 and 2001) Table 2. Literacy rates and male/ female differences (1991- 2001)
Annex II: Examples of cultural values and practices that inform gender relation of different caste/ethnic groups
Annex III: Proposed revision on the Women's literacy Curriculum
Democracy, gender equality and women's literacy: Experience from Nepal Nepal has in its history witnessed patriarchy, different forms of monarchy, and oligarchy. The culture thus shaped and nurtured hierarchical values and a gender based social construct. In 1951 the country introduced a parliamentary form of a democratic system with the removal of the 104-year-old Rana oligarchy. This system continued for a decade, but it contradicted with the culturally shaped and nurtured hierarchical and gender based social arrangement.
Consequently, Nepal suffered from political
instability, frequent change in government, and conflict between the pro-culturist and pro-transformative forces.
The excessive number of illiterates (98 per cent) contributed to the negation of democratic values. It is within this context Nepal National Education Planning Commission (NNEPC) produced its report in 1955 to enable the country’s illiterate to exercise their democratic rights and support in nation building (Sharma, 2059 BS).
Literacy in Nepal followed the Hindu Varnashramic caste line. Even the indigenous people (IP or ethnic groups) followed hierarchical values in imparting literacy education. This implies that the Nepali culture and the political system did not make an effort to introduce mass education. The beginning of adult literacy programs in 1940 is also the continuation of the class education. In other words, literacy education in Nepal was introduced to prepare the Gorkha Army for British India. And it was the NNEPC that advocated for the adult literacy campaign for the first time in the history of Nepal.
The planners assumed that the lack of knowledge would deter the citizens to fully exercise their rights granted by the newly instated democratic system. In order to utilize the rights such as freedom of expression and participation in nation building activities, Nepal needed fully informed, knowledgeable and 'functional' citizens. Literacy was thus viewed as an appropriate means to achieve this. It was also assumed that the rural development initiatives delivered via oral and demonstration methods were slow to yield the desired results because of mass illiteracy (Ibid). Consequently adult literacy programs were designed to assist specifically the rural development initiatives to achieve their goals.
The literacy program thus revolved around imparting knowledge and skills on agriculture and home improvement. The areas to be taught included productive as well and reproductive activities such as poultry, cattle raising, farming, cooking, food preservation, childcare, and home management. It can be concluded that the objective of the adult literacy programs during the 1950s was to prepare the citizens
______________________________________________________________________________ who could fully function in and/or adapt to the country's changed political and economic systems, and thereby assist in the development agenda. functionalist perspective.
In this sense literacy was viewed narrowly through a
This implies that though the NNEPC tried to incorporate some of the
democratic values in adult literacy, it basically nurtured gender roles.
In 1960 the parliamentary democracy was taken over by a party-less Panchayat system. This political change was a set back to the uprising people’s interest and their political awareness. However, in this period as well the education reform was continued. The adult literacy was still viewed as a vehicle to nation building. The drive was thus to enable the citizens to fully function in and adapt to the changed political system, and the development efforts guided by modernism. The All Round National Education Committee 1961 also recommended for an improved version of literacy programs. With the name of 'Society Education' the Committee recommended for an improved adult literacy program in order to retain the literacy skills and to develop qualified and able citizens. In this context the women's literacy also continued enabling women to better perform their traditional roles as homemakers and child care takers. Here again the legacy of the gender role continued through adult literacy program.
The Panchayat regime, which lasted for three decades (1960–1990), introduced Integrated Rural Development (IRDP) and Basic Needs Program (BNP) together with community development movement (Bhattachan, 1997). These programs mobilized women for community development activities through literacy centers. Nevertheless, during the same period the government adult literacy approach was revamped and a new set of primers was developed. The new set of the primers used the key word approach of Paulo Freire.
It appeared to be a departure from the functional approach but the
revolutionary nature of Freire's approach was tailored in such a way that it did not challenge the existing system. It rather focused on social change through functional modality. The approach was used not to raising consciousness but to teach the letters and words (Adhikari, 2059 BS). The wave created by the IRDP, BNP and the new approach to literacy education helped introduce democratic values such as shared learning, collective decision making, and collaborative action among women but not much change was achieved in terms of gender equality.
The UN declaration of Women's Year in 1975 advocated the need for integration of women in development. Nepal also started integrating women in its development initiatives. As a result in the sixth five-year plan (1980-1985) provisions specifically related to women were included. This process was continued in the succeeding plans. Up to the eighth five-year plan women's concerns were included. But till then the purpose was only to improve women's conditions. In other words WID approach remained as
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______________________________________________________________________________ a dominating framework while formulating policies and plans. With the emergence of women and development (WAD) approach in the international context, Nepal also moved towards this direction and began to pay attention to improving women's position as well. Women's literacy programs began to focus on areas such as income generation, awareness building, and access to health care facilities through educational processes.
Consequently micro credit approaches became popular even within literacy
programs with a notion that such approaches would enhance women's economic as well as social positions. This implies that UN efforts and the concept of WID and WAD could include some of the democratic values in relation to gender equality in a gender-based society of Nepal.
Nepal witnessed another political change in 1990. This year the three decade long party-less Panchayat system was overthrown by the pro-democratic peoples’ movement. In other words, Nepal restored its parliamentary form of government.
With this political change the number of NGOs and INGOs
dramatically rose. Currently the country has more than 40,000 NGOs and 102 INGOs and a substantial number of them are working in the field of adult literacy. Ideally these agencies reach to 60 per cent of the targeted number of illiterates and the rest of the people are catered to by government resources. It is obvious that during the 1990s a massive expansion of adult literacy programs took place.
NGOs
particularly with support from INGOs and international donors emerged with a variety of approaches to improve women's lives through educational processes. Some adopted a 'literacy first' approach, whereas others relied on a 'literacy second' approach in achieving women's empowerment and gender equality. However, most NGOs had their own development agenda attached to their programs.
Health, natural resource management, environment conservation, agriculture, and economic development are some examples of the agenda. Among others, REFLECT was also one of the major approaches that some INGOs applied in Nepal with empowerment and consciousness raising purposes. The trend thus shows that both functional and critical perspectives continued to be tested quite extensively in the adult literacy programs in Nepal. The above discussion however still validates the observation made by UNESCO (cited in Acharya, 1999) that "literacy education has been viewed as a development challenge in Nepal since 1951" (p.3). But on the other hand, it has also been a challenge to inculcate democratic ideals in a deeply rooted hierarchical and gender based social construct.
International efforts to put pressure on UN member countries (CEDAW, Beijing Conference, etc.) gave another impetus to change cultural values and gender bias approaches through adult literacy. The change could be clearly observed in the ninth five-year plan (1997-2002). The agenda of the plan included gender mainstreaming, women's empowerment and gender equality as the three major strategies for
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______________________________________________________________________________ women's advancement and gender justice. What the ninth plan advocated for was continued in tenth fiveyear plan (2002-2006) as well. The tenth plan not only gave continuity to the strategies but also accepted and pointed out the challenges and failures in achieving gender equality and/or gender justice. Keeping the challenges in view the tenth plan therefore aimed to ensure gender equality by making educational opportunities available to all irrespective of caste or ethnicity. In order to achieve the goal of gender parity and equality, Education for All (EFA) has also formulated policies such as elimination of gender and social discriminations through improvement in women's literacy status and equitable access to basic and continuing education to all adults.
The historical scenario discussed above indicates that the (a) contents and approaches of adult literacy have been modified with the change in the political system, (b) efforts have been made at the national level through plans and policies to achieve gender justice, (c) adult literacy programs have been utilized as a vehicle to reach and mobilize women for national as well as their own development, and (d) changes at different levels (political system, national plans, development notions, adult literacy), however, have not been able to bring the desired change in the cultural practices and attitude of the people with regard to gender justice.
Democratic values: The Constitutional Provisions The Nepali constitution carried cultural values, and religious dos and don'ts. Even today this legacy continues. Nevertheless, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990, is a bit progressive in a sense that it guarantees fundamental rights to all citizens without discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, caste, religion or sex. The Constitution also ensures equal rights to all citizens to earn, enjoy, sell and transact wealth within the law. It also guarantees equal pay for men and women for similar work. The Directive Principles have made statements for making special arrangements for women in education, health facilities and employment.
In order to increase women's political participation the Constitution
specifically indicates that all the political parties contesting elections to the Lower House must have at least 5 per cent women candidates and the Upper House of 60 members must have at least 5 per cent women.
As one of the signatories of CEDAW, Nepal has been continuously modifying the laws that contradict with provisions of the Convention. Yet there are many discriminatory laws that need to be amended in line with the CEDAW. The Treaty Act 1991 specifically provides that international instruments ratified or acceded to by Nepal prevail over the domestic legislation; therefore The Supreme Court on its decision issued the directive order to the government to amend all discriminatory laws in regard to property rights
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______________________________________________________________________________ of women in accordance with the CEDAW provisions. Recently changes in discriminatory laws were made mostly through the Eleventh Amendments to the Country Code of Nepal, 1963, and it guarantees importantly, women's right to property, rights in marriage and family life besides other rights. But discrimination still remains amongst the daughters on the basis of marital status in partition and intestate property.
In case of intestate property, a married daughter is much lower in hierarchy for succession. Furthermore, only an unmarried daughter is entitled to receive share in parental property and intestate property but has to return her remaining share of property to her maternal family upon marriage. But in a recent verdict (2004) of the Supreme Court (final written text of the decision is yet to come) says that "an unmarried daughter is entitled to have a right over intestate property and has to return her remaining share of property to her maternal family upon marriage" declared null and void. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has also issued the directive order to form the recommendation committee headed by the Secretary of Human Right Commission to recommend amending all discriminatory laws of the said section inconsistent with CEDAW.
The provisions with regard to the citizenship rights still follow gender biased patriarchal norms. In other words, children of a Nepali woman married to a foreigner are not entitled to Nepali citizenship. In a society like Nepal where marriage is assumed as compulsion a woman's property right, rule of residency and social mobility are dependent or based on her marital status. In spite of the 'loopholes for discriminating laws' (Acharya, date not available) the Constitution of Nepal in essence guarantees women the right to equally participate or represent in all sectors of society, freedom of expression, freedom to choose their representatives to form the government, and access to and control over resources. In this respect the constitution challenges the traditional gender values, norms and practices of the society.
Regarding the inclusion of constitutionally guaranteed democratic values in women's literacy programs, there have been efforts to incorporate them in literacy packages and facilitator training, and women learners are continuously informed about their constitutional rights and responsibilities through mass media and public meetings. The above discussions make it clear that in Nepal as well the women's literacy program "is both an outcome and a tool of democracy" (UIE, 1999, p. 8). Consequently one can see the signs of both functional and critical perspectives in the curricular materials of women's literacy programs. The programs thus teach women functional skills to change their conditions, and democratic values and norms to change their positions.
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Gender parity status in literacy Historically Nepali women's literacy rate remained less than half of their male counterparts.
But
restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1990 as mentioned above helped expedite the process of enrolling more women in literacy programs. With concerted efforts and additional financial and technical inputs to the programs over the last decade, women's literacy has increased. As a result, increase in output has also been observed. However, the caste and ethnic disparity in literacy attainment is still reflected in the output level. For example, the increase in the literacy rate among upper caste hill women (19 per cent) and hill ethnics (18.7 per cent) are higher than that of other caste and ethnic groups (See Annex I: Table 1).
A comparative analysis of the changes in men and women's literacy rate during the same period still witness gender disparity (See Annex I: Table 2). Although the literacy rate among 6 year-old and above urban males has not changed much, the gender disparity in literacy in this group still persists. Similarly, the literacy rate among 15 year-old and above women has more than doubled. Yet literacy rates of men from similar groups are higher. This indicates that the decline in gender disparity in literacy attainment has been very slow. This further implies that gender parity and gender equality through literacy programs need to be analyzed from lived culture of the beneficiaries. Attempts have been made to do this in the following paragraph.
Women's literacy in the midst of diverse values and practices The analysis of the lived values and practices of ethnics and caste groups of Nepal reflects immense diversity (see Annex II). Among diversity there are some commonalities as well: (a) Marriage is a social and cultural obligation and thus a compulsion; (b) child bearing is the most important part of a married woman's life is thus a compulsion. Child bearing, especially giving birth to a son is linked to a woman's security, respect and family dignity as the sons give continuity to the family lineage, and (c) sons alone are entitled to ancestral property.
The rights and democratic values in relation to women guaranteed by the constitution and legislation revolve around these limited commonalities. In fact these values and practices are the mainstream norms of Brahmin and Chettris who cover 15.8 and 12.7 per cent of the population respectively (Gurung, 2003). The women's literacy curriculum no doubt is informed by the same values and practices.
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______________________________________________________________________________ Following the democratic values advocated by the constitution and legislatives the educational policies/plans have adopted affirmative actions to achieve gender parity and equality in education. Women's literacy has thus received much attention for three main reasons. One is to improve overall quality of women's lives. Two is to create an egalitarian society. Three is to attract the next generation towards education and school. Questions arise about these intentions. The questions are: what is the men’s role in women's improved quality of life? What is the men’s role in creating an egalitarian society? Why are women alone taught to educate children? These questions imply that women alone are the ones who should be oriented for domestic as well as social responsibilities. Moreover, men are gradually released from family responsibilities.
Nevertheless, the current literacy curricular materials and
pedagogical training do pay attention to it. In this sense they do highlight the role of men in “women labeled domestic world” and structurally perpetuated practices. But the pedagogical practices or delivery of the curricular materials concentrate only on women.
From the gender perspective this approach of literacy education further polarizes men and women within a complex social structure. For example, in a Hindu social structure women are confined to the household chores and men are involved in the outer world. This structure is based on the notion of interdependence. But the value of interdependence is submerged and rather one group's work began to be valued over the other's. The question is how to achieve gender justice in this so called “interdependent social structure"? The same question applies to the Sherpa’s (Buddhist) social structure, where women are treated as an “independent being”. Therefore the question is how gender equality can be achieved in a given structure? This analysis supports that gender is both structural and personal. "It is also an axis along which power, hierarchy and inequality, among others, are distributed, explained and rationalized" (Acharya, 2004, p. 3). This notion clearly indicates that imparting knowledge and skills to women alone and taming them to be more responsible for the household as well as for themselves will not help achieve the goal of gender justice. Most literacy programs of Nepal have been unable to internalize this knowledge.
Reflecting upon the literacy and non-formal education programs of Nepal one can capture three trends in approaching gender justice. These three trends are (a) women targeted functional literacy education with critical flavor in it. The government's modality belongs to this trend. (b) REFLEFT guided by nonnegotiable conflict modality. Modality applied by Action Aid and Lutheran World Service belongs to this trend. (c) Shift from functional literacy with critical flavor to empowerment model to gender perspective. Nepal Australia Community Resource Management and Livelihood Project (NACRMLP) belong to this trend. This section draws examples more from the government's initiatives because most women's literacy programs make use of the government's curriculum and primers at least for the basic level.
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The government's women literacy curriculum, which follows the ATLP design with 7 focus areas, include: Women development, Civic awareness, Culture and tradition, Family life, Income generationagriculture, Health and nutrition, and Environment conservation and sanitation. The review and revision of the curriculum elaboration as well as primers’ and facilitators training manual of both basic and advanced levels, have recently been completed. (See annex III for revised curriculum elaboration). The revision utilized the gender perspectives in general and women's reproductive and legal rights in particular as frame of reference. The curriculum in this sense ideally covers all the democratic values.
The contents and topics try to grapple with people's belief and practices regarding gender relation through topics like gender roles, power relation, and divorce. In essence, ideally the curriculum has tried to ensure gender justice by promoting democratic values. However, in practice the curriculum ignores the fact that some of what it has been trying to promote already exist in most ethnic and caste groups. For example, marriage related norms such as divorce, widow marriage, selection of one's partner, are not restricted or seen as problems in most ethnic groups.
Rather than utilizing such democratic values
curriculum or literacy program tries to inject the value of the mainstream or power holding people, i.e., Brahman and Chettri in the case of Nepal. Furthermore the literacy trends if interfaced with the cultural values of different caste and ethnic groups of Nepal provide conflicting scenario. For example, the lived democratic values associated with choice of partners and the concept of “my body, my choice” of the mountain people and some of the ethnics of the hill people as well is under-represented in the existing curriculum and primers. This reality also gives the knowledge that both curriculum and NFE primers are nurturing injustice to the cultural values of the ethnic groups and Dalits. This to an extent is the reluctance to accept democratic values of powerless people.
These examples imply that Nepali women's' literacy and non-formal education curriculum and the primers do not promote “others’ values. It rather attempts to establish the values of the mainstream or power holding people as the values of "others" as well. This again creates the question, is this democratic practice? Are we celebrating diversities that are available in the country and are we letting NFE and literacy participants know that they have good values and practices to be shared with mainstream people as well? Obviously these unanswered questions lead to the conclusion that “others” are yet to be given a chance to be heard.
This context also indicates that women's literacy curriculum has not been able to
include the notion of legal pluralism (Benda-Beckmann, and Et. al. cited in Upreti, 2004). Ways to respect existing democratic values and practices belonging to different ethnics and facilitating the modification of undemocratic values/practices are thus desired in women's literacy curriculum.
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Issues related to women's access to and control over resources and reproductive health are deeply rooted in the culture of most ethnics and caste groups. Women's literacy curriculum tries to address these issues. But the delivery mode and selection of target group ignores the fact that cultural values, norms or practices are inseparable elements of social structure. In other words, engaging women alone in the discourse hardly helps achieving gender justice, which demands structural changes along with change in individuals.
The second trend, REFLECT, as mentioned earlier focuses more on empowering the disadvantaged people and women in order to improve their condition and position. Thus the concept of empowerment is dynamic, it is not only limited to sharing of power. Its multiple meanings extend from the personal to the political, from inner transformation to that of structural change (Deyo, date not available). Women's empowerment strategies gradually took a shift from power sharing towards relational issues and began to stress on changing "institutional rules, procedures, identities, and relationships" (Kabeer, cited in Deyo, date not available, p. 2). This implies that the empowerment process demands the involvement of both the oppressed and the oppressor in naming as well as resolving the conflict.
The REFLECT modality
also negates this. It focuses on provoking the subordinated alone with very little scope of conflict management and mediation.
The third trend that NACRMLP is going to apply soon is known as Social Equity Awareness Action Program (SEAP) and emerged out of the experiences gathered for almost two decades of intervention. For years women's literacy programs remained one of the major activities. But gradually, when this didn't yield the desirable results in terms of gender equality and equity, the project moved to women's empowerment strategy. This realization demanded a new effort in literacy. The new effort was to involve men, women and other stakeholders together to discuss gender related issues and help negotiate and collaborate for gender equality at all levels of life. Though the empowerment strategy is still applied the project could not bag desired outcomes to the extent it aspired for. The women were sensitized but their guardians under whose control or guidance they were supposed to interact did not understand the intent.
As a result women did not receive the necessary support from the family and/or forest
management institutions. Therefore SEAP was devised. The Forest User's Groups (FUG) are both the implementers and the beneficiaries in this program as they realized the persistence of gender equality and inequitable benefit sharing. Thus they are also in the process of developing working strategies. The basic premise of the SEAP strategies considers family and institution as units of intervention. It will thus attempt to sensitize the institution as well as the household.
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The above deliberations indicate that there is a need of shift from functional or critical perspectives towards more constructive measures in achieving gender justice and/or democratic values. Dealing with injustices and conflicts from constructive thinking involves "learning, negotiation and collaboration" (Upreti, 2004, p. 61). In line with this notion some options are proposed below.
Task ahead for gender justice through adult literacy Universal democratic values, diverse cultural values of the country, and the notion of gender justice are three broad areas where literacy providers of Nepal need interface. This is not an easy task. It is in this setting, some directions are proposed for the future. •
Since Nepal has diverse cultural values that comply or confront with universal democratic values, the task for literacy providers from the gender lens is to identify the values of different caste and ethnic groups to be incorporated, nurtured, and discarded in literacy curricula and pedagogy. This task demands ethnographic studies in different cultural and geographical settings.
•
Since literacy trends of Nepal go in three directions, its providers should ensure the inclusion of universal democratic values in them and thereby gender justice. This task needs to develop formula to be applied in the curriculum and pedagogy. The frame for this formula could be (a) Functional literacy + cultural value analysis from gender lens + enabling women and men for shared undertaking for gender equality and equity = gender justice (b) Critical literacy + cultural value analysis from gender lens + negotiation skills + enabling women and men for shared undertaking = gender justice (c) SEAP modality + cultural value analysis from gender lens + enabling women and men for shared undertaking = gender justice.
•
Since gender issues differ in degree from one ethnic group to another, literacy providers should analyze cultural values and develop cultural reconstruction, deconstruction, and construction movements as a part of literacy education. This task requires thorough analysis of the cultural values from hermeneutic perspective and reshaping of the values to make them fairer.
•
Since literacy is a personal, social and national issue, its providers should maintain balance between these ends through curricular and pedagogical measures. This task demands rethinking of the contents and pedagogical measures of different forms of literacy trends to ensure rooms for achieving gender justice.
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References Acharya, M. (2004). Gender mainstreaming strategy for MOES (unpublished draft). Kathmandu: SAHAVAGI. Acharya, S. (1999). Empowerment, literacy and community organization: A case study of self-help women’s groups in Nepal. (Ed.D. Dissertation) Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts: Amherst. Acharya, M. ( ) Unpublished paper prepared for the purpose of ADB. Kathmandu. Adhikari, P. S. (2059). Anaupacharik Sikshya Kehi Abadharana Kehi Abhyas (In Nepali, NFE concepts and practices). Kathmandu: IFCD. Bhattachan, K. B. (2002). Social and Economic conditions of Dalit women. In Prabodh M. Devkota (Ed.) Dalits of Nepal: Issues and challenges. (p. 65-89). Kathmandu: FEDO. Bhattachan, K. B. (1997). People/Community-based development strategy in Nepal. In Krishna B. Bhattachan and Chaitanya Mishra (Eds.), Development practices in Nepal (pp. 100-148). Kathmandu: Central Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tribhuvan University in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, Germany. CEDAW Monitoring Committee, Nepal (2003). Shadow Report on the second and third periodic report of government of Nepal on CEDAW Convention Kathmandu: Author. Communication with Mr. Mahendra Kant Mainali, Advocate, Kathmandu. Communication with Mr. Uttam Upadhyaya, from NACRMLP Deyo, L. ( ). Unpublished paper on women's empowerment. Gautam, R., and Thapa-Magar, A. K. (1994) Tribal Ethnography of Nepal (Vol. I and Vol. II) Kathmandu. Gurung, H. (2003). Social Demography of Nepal: Census 2001 Kathmandu: Himal Books. HMG, Ministry of Law, Justice and parliamentary Affairs (1992). The Constitution of The Kingdom of Nepal 2047 (1990) Kathmandu: Author. Sharma, G. (2059). Nepalka Sikshya Ayogharuka Pratibedanharu (In Nepali A compilation of the reports o f the Education commission of Nepal). Kathmandu: Makalu Books. Upreti, B. R. (2004). The price of neglect: From resource conflict to Maoist insurgency in the Himalayan kingdom. Kathmandu: Bhrikuti Academic Publications. UIE (1997) Democracy and peace Hamburg: Author.
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Annex I Table 1 Female literacy rate and educational attainment levels by caste/ethnicity, (1991 and 2001) Caste/Ethnic Groups
Literacy Rate 1991 36.7 36.1 44.6 13.1 12.0 14.7 4.0 25.7 29.2 48.1 24.2 12.8 11.5 13.2 25.6
Upper Caste Hill Upper Caste Terai Upper Caste Terai Middle Caste Dalits Hill Dalits Terai Dalits Janajatis (ethnics) Hill Janajatis Newar\Thakali Other Hill Janajatis Terai Janajatis Religious Minorities Others Total
2001 55.9 55.4 63.8 26.3 24.2 31.8 11.5 43.1 46.4 62.6 42.3 31.5 22.7 38.3 42.5
% increase in literacy rate 2001-1991 19.2 19.3 19.2 13.2 12.2 17.1 7.5 17.4 17.2 14.5 18.1 18.7 11.2 25.1 16.9
Source: Acharya, 2004
Table 2 Literacy rates and male/ female differences (1991- 2001) 1991 2001 Indicators Male Female Male-Female Male Female Male-Female For 6 years and above Urban 80.0 Rural 54.2 Nepal 54.2 15 years + 38.0
51.2 20.4 24.7 13.0
23.2 29.9 29.5 25.0
80.9 62.2 65.1 62.2
61.6 59.3 42.5 34.6
19.3 22.9 22.6 27. 6
Source: Acharya, 2004
Annex II
Examples of cultural values and practices that inform gender relation of different caste/ethnic groups Hill groups (Athapariya Plain groups Rai, Bote, Chepang, Danwar Darai, Gurung, Thakali, Limbu) Tharu
Dalits
Brahmin/Chettri
Satar, Rajbanshi,
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Different kinds of marriage exist such as elopement, abduction, marrying another man's legal wife by paying penalty. Esp. among the Gurungs boys and girls have freedom to mingle with each other and choose their partners, marriage is not forced, divorce is an institution and is prevalent, divorcees and widows can remarry according to their wishes, and women take care of business in public as well.
Brahmin/Chettri
Yadav Esp. among Satar love and arrange marriage exist with the practice of purchasing the girl, uxorilocal residence and a girl entering a High social house of a man mobility whom she is attracted to with a gift of liquor.
Women of the family play Divorce, widow important social role marriage Esp. among Athapariya and Rai the oldest member of liverate the household is the head marriage of the house irrespective of are common, gender. Widow is given choice to marry her brother in-law or remain unmarried. She can also marry outsider but upon condition.
Dalits
Child marriage and Divorce is a taboo Tilak (esp. among Widow marriage is Taraian Dalits) prohibited Widower is rather Arrange marriage encouraged to remarry Widows are placed Triply exploited as many restrictions and an untouchable, as are viewed as bad luck a woman and as a so not allowed in untouchable auspicious occasions. woman. Male head of the house High social has absolute authority, mobility due to women as they grow compulsion to earn older gain power but for family are still considered and Premarital uxorilocal livelihood. act as dependent to residence and male figures (husband widow marriage or sons or brothers) exist esp. among Rajbanshi Restricted social mobility due to the fact that dignity is attached to women's sexuality.
In Thakalis divorce is practiced but whoever seeks divorce initially should pay alimony to the other. Yet sons alone are
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________________________________________________________________________ ______ Hill groups (Athapariya Plain groups Rai, Bote, Chepang, Danwar Darai, Gurung, Thakali, Limbu)
Dalits
Brahmin/Chettri
entitled to ancestral property. Women are involved in trades and business
Values, practice common to all: • Marriage is a social and cultural obligation and thus a compulsion • Child bearing is the most important part of a married woman's life is thus a compulsion. Child bearing linked to a woman's security, respect and family dignity as the sons give continuity the family lineage. • Sons alone are entitled to ancestral property
Annex III Revised Women's literacy Curriculum* SN
Reproductive rights perspective 1. Adolescent’s Health Physiological changes during adolescent (New) Menstruation Process, Menstrual Hygiene, problems and management (New) Sexual Abuse in adolescent girls (New) Appropriate age of marriage (New) 2. Birth Spacing Why birth spacing is needed (New) Methods of birth spacing (New) Permanent sterilization (New) 3. Safe Motherhood Signs and symptoms of pregnancy (New) Care during pregnancy (New) Preparation of delivery (New) 4. Abortion Causes of abortion (Miscarriage) (New) Care of women after abortion (New) Adverse effect of unsafe abortion (New) Availability of safe
Legal rights perspectives Democracy ( revised) - What is democracy? - Importance of democracy
Gender mainstreaming Family Life Gender roles (picture and text)
Women Rights (major revision) ( Based on the convention)
Power relation
Child rights ( new) - Meaning of child rights - Rights of the child - Punishment
Women Development Access and control over resources
Citizenship (new) - Bases to acquire citizenship - Why is citizenship important? - How to acquire
Women Development Political participation of women
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Reproductive rights perspective abortion service (New)
5. Family Relation Role of male in family life (New) Respect of women’s reproductive right (New) Care during pregnancy and delivery (New) Care of mother and child (new)
Legal rights perspectives citizenship? - Process to acquire citizenship? Vital Event Registration (new) - Why events has to be registered (birth, death, marriage, divorce and migration) - Why it is important to register? - Place to register the events - Time limit to register the events
Gender mainstreaming
Family Life Importance of children and son preference Power relation between men and women and family members Patriarchy
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